In this week’s Forward, Bethamie Horowitz looks at the recent Boston Community Study that showed that 60% of children in interfaith families are being raised Jewish.
There will be much debate about how to explain the Boston results — indeed, on this page last week three well-known researchers argued that the study’s findings are not particularly exceptional among local studies — but the upshot is that we are “not in Kansas anymore” regarding the causes and consequences of intermarriage.
Intermarriage was once thought to be the slippery slope of decline into total assimilation and Jewish disappearance. But the Boston case suggests that there are other possible outcomes. The Boston community deserves credit for its visionary approach of welcoming the intermarried while also emphasizing serious Jewish education.
